Mindshare, a global media network and digital agency, recently deployed DoubleClick Digital Marketing (DDM) components to service several of their client accounts.

We caught up with Danny Huynh, managing director of digital and client leadership at Mindshare, to find out more about their experience with DDM.

What led you to look at the DoubleClick platform?

We’re platform agnostic at Mindshare, and are constantly evaluating technology solutions to identify what works best for a particular client.

Early in 2012, one of our retail clients wanted to drive deeper consumer insights with Google Analytics, as well as, enhance the overall performance of their campaigns. The integrated DDM stack had just been unveiled, and it made sense for us to explore the synergies this platform could unlock.

You eventually deployed DoubleClick Search, DFA, Invite Media and Google Analytics for the client. What was the deciding factor in selecting these components?

An important factor was that these were tied into Google Analytics and the single cookie view across the DoubleClick stack. We knew these data would help us understand the complete consumer journey including all the various interactions and touch points -- whether that’s through a search ad, a display ad from a brand campaign, or part of a remarketing effort.

How was the deployment process for these new platforms?

Look, you need a platform that is accurate and reliable, but that only gets you so far; the brains and effort it take to set up the platform is really the key to success.

In the past, we’ve always had a sales team and a technical team to interact with. In this instance our everyday contacts were also super knowledgeable about all of the behind-the-scenes stuff. So when we do have a problem, they take care of it.

What kind of advice would you have for others about their use of tech platforms?

Be careful to not use technology to optimize your brand out of consideration. Today’s consumer journey is no longer a funnel. It’s complex, with different zigzags of consideration and reconsideration. As a marketer, you need to paint the full picture of how the digital channels interact and how each drives a sale -- whether an immediate conversion or not.

It can be tough to convince a client to do that if they’re a pure performance marketer, but if you’re a brand marketer, you need that strong foundation, have the plumbing in place, so that you can see how it all works within an integrated media plan.

At Mindshare, we call that approach “adaptive marketing” where we use fast-moving data to refine our approach over time to make sure we’re driving the results our clients want.

Read more about Mindshare’s experience with DoubleClick Digital Marketing here.Posted by Scott Brown, DoubleClick Team